Set of vintage 1950s Schiaparelli watermelon star brooch and clip-on earrings in gold tone with vitrail rhinestones. Wonderful layered sunburst shape. The set is in good vintage condition and the brooch is signed on reverse.

Elsa Schiaparelli was born in Italy in 1890. Her career as a designer started when she moved to Paris in the 1920s. She became Coco Chanel's biggest rival and though aesthetically they had very little in common, they shared the belief in costume jewellery as an art form.

Schiaparelli, inspired by the Surrealist artists in her modern and exuberant fashion pieces, created bright and bold jewellery in unusually coloured stones and glass, with an abstract art style. She saw jewellery as an essential element in creating a 'look'. Her quirky pieces took inspiration from astrology, exotic fauna and the circus.